Sudanese youth group call for fresh protests on March 21

February 28, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – A Sudanese organization called ‘Youth for Change’ has called for demonstrations in all parts of Sudan on March 21 in a new bid to bring about a mass uprising similar to the ones in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

The group’s spokesperson Magdi Okasha said that their ultimate goal is to topple the Khartoum regime.

This came as opposition parties launched a fierce attack on the Sudanese government and vowed to push for change by mobilizing their supporetrs to take to the streets.

Leaders from the opposition parties convened at the headquarters of the Popular Congress Party (PCP) in which they saw a replay of a video showing a female activist recounting her alleged rape by agents from the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS).

Police and NISS officers cordoned the PCP HQ as families of detainees and opposition supporters lifted banners and shouting anti-government slogans.

The leaders of the opposition parties who form the National Alliance Forces called for the release of PCP leader Hassan Al-Turabi who remains in jail since January with no formal charges being brought against him.

Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) leader Mohamed Ibrahim Nugud expressed solidarity with the PCP “despite past bitterness” in order to work on the issue of freedoms, calling for dispatching a delegation to hold meetings with the revolutionary forces in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt for coordination and exchange of ideas.

The deputy Secretary-General of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) Yasser Arman, echoed Nugud’s call and voiced rejection of the concept of politically motivated arrests and torture by the NISS.

Arman made a demand for spreading democracy to fight against corruption and tyranny, noting that the Sudanese state “is a failed and outdated one that needs update and renewal”.

He further suggested establishing a new capital other Khartoum describing it as the source of the wars waged throughout the Sudan.

For his part, the chairman of the Alliance opposition groups, Farouk Abu Issa, said a commission would be formed that would work on spreading freedom and defending against torture and preventing it, stressing that crimes of torture is punishable without statute of limitations.

Sudanese youth called for anti-government protests which were violently dispersed by security forces starting on January 30. The movement failed to garner mass appeal and dozens of activists remain detained without charge.

Sudanese President Omer Hassan al-Bashir has promised to step down at the next election in four years, after 26 years in power. His party took over in a 1989 bloodless coup.

But growing voices of dissent, even from within his ruling party, are calling for more immediate action to prevent the kind of popular uprising that toppled long-serving leaders in Tunisia and Egypt and has spread to other nations including Libya.

(ST)